Kelowna Chiefs accepting donations and hosting live auction for Princeton flood fund

The Kelowna Chiefs will be hosting a live auction on Friday when they welcome the Princeton Posse, with all proceeds going towards the town’s flood relief program.

Chiefs marketing director Alex Draper came up with the idea and tells Castanet exactly how they plan to help.

“We’re going to try and raise as much cash as we can. I spoke with the Posse’s GM, and he said they don’t need clothing anymore, they are overwhelmed by the generosity of the public for that, but he said they need cash for the flood relief fund. So we’ll have a cash box at the door and we’ve also got some great items we're going to auction off during the breaks,” said Draper.

Some of the Chiefs sponsors were kind enough to donate items which will be auctioned during Friday’s game.

“Sandi Kowalyshyn from Telus stepped up and donated a Fitbit watch, and also Sunset Ranch has stepped up and given us four golf passes, a lesson and a dozen balls. We’ve only got two one-minute slots to do this world's quickest auction and raise as much as we can,” explained Draper.

Now that the B.C. government has lifted capacity restrictions on live events, for the first time in over two years, the Rutland arena will be able to host a full-capacity crowd. Draper is hopeful this will help the auction.

“I think everybody is so excited that we’re back to 100 per cent, we’d love to see a full house here, whether you’re here supporting the Chiefs or just wanting to support the initiative we’re doing for Princeton, obviously the more people we get, the more bids we’ll get and the more money Princeton can take home with them,” Draper expressed.

Draper felt the Chiefs needed to step up and help in their own way, because he feels the league is a big family, and considers Princeton one of Kelowna’s neighbours.

“We had the fires in the summer and we were affected, but the flooding hasn’t affected us and Princeton is our neighbour, they’re part of our community and league obviously, and anywhere we can help out we will. There's other teams that are helping out too, the 100 Mile House Wranglers were in town and they helped the guys sandbag and everything on game day, it was incredible,” described Draper.

Puck drop between the Chiefs and Posse is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Dec. 3. If you can't make it and would like to help out, you can access the Princeton Flood Relief Fund by clicking here.